Blacklisted hyperlinks could bring $11,000 fine each day

Senior Member

joined:Jan 28, 2005
posts:3072
votes: 27

The Australian communications regulator says it will fine people who hyperlink to sites on its blacklist, which has been further expanded to include several pages on the anonymous whistleblower site Wikileaks.

Wikileaks was added to the blacklist for publishing a leaked document containing Denmark's list of banned websites.

The move by the Australian Communications and Media Authority comes after it threatened the host of online broadband discussion forum Whirlpool last week with a $11,000-a-day fine over a link published in its forum to another page blacklisted by ACMA - an anti-abortion website.

Junior Member

joined:Feb 11, 2005
posts:143
votes: 0

Whats the deal with all this neo fascist government in the name of democracy nowdays? How is Australia any different than Hitler, Stalin or a Commie in this regard? Am I the only one who can't see any difference?

Senior Member

joined:Nov 27, 2003
posts: 1642
votes: 0

The Australian 'internet filter' is aimed to stop minors from viewing #*$!ography. The Australian government is claiming a voter mandate for the measure, because the religious right got their petitions out. The Minister (thats government minister, not minister of religion!) charged with implementation isn't backing down, despite massive backlash from the IT community. getup.org.au has run a major campaign against it. A large proportion of the child protection industry is also recognising that this is neither an effective nor sensible solution to the problem. I can see this being an election issue, next time around. The system is still 'in trial' and we are expecting that the results on performance will be bad enough that it will can the system - but we aren't holding our breath.

(Aussies on the forum over 18 - you've written to your local MP and State Senators, right?)

Senior Member

joined:Feb 25, 2003
posts:972
votes: 0

leadegroot, out of curiosity could you explain how the religious right was powerful enough to get this through and then anti-abortion sites ended up on the black list? That's sort of an interesting turn around.

Senior Member

joined:Nov 27, 2003
posts: 1642
votes: 0

@woop01 - as I understand it, it was the graphic nature of the anti-abortion material that got it banned, (I suspect there was some video, although I haven't been there myself) rather than its general anti-abortion message. Someone on another forum suggested that the wiki abortion page be submitted, but the consensus was that plain information doesn't meet the rules.

Its one of those things - no matter who you are, once you set up a government department with secrets, they'll do what they want, not necessarily what you set them up for.

(but really, don't ask me to explain! I've never been able to comprehend the inner workings of the mind of a politician! ;))

Preferred Member

joined:Nov 20, 2005
posts:451
votes: 0

potentialgeek

"Very happy not to be living in Australia."

Ditto, Amen

With the world's most efficient tax office, rampant police corruption (for a so called 1st world country) and a series of federal agencies who perhaps should be on everyone's blacklist (vis-a-vis the Australian Federal Police and the "Bali 9"), they can keep their BBQ'd shrimp and near beer. So my Aussie based forum gets spammed, I do not know, 1 year later I get a bill for over $4 million?! Sounds like Indonesia.

Senior Member

joined:Nov 30, 2006
posts:685
votes: 0

rampant police corruption (for a so called 1st world country)

Two Australian states, Queensland and New South Wales, publicly purged a bunch of corrupt police about two decades ago. That's old news, not particularly relevant, and is a pretty cheap shot. In fact, it's fair to say that the statement is flat-out wrong.

Senior Member

i'd say if it was a link to a spy or malware site that downloaded some garbage onto your computer, i could think of a number of things a violator can be liable:

- computer damages - identity theft and the money costing in fraudulent purchases - time lost from work to fix issues with id theft

i had to lose 2 days of work with my cousin when his license was stolen, and someone used it to get $2k in parking tickets and register a vehicle in another state. if dl information is on your computer and somebody does the same thing, you could lose time that you could have used making money.